Name: Sand Hills
Duration: P00H05M29S
Description: Emmett’s college thesis was about the Frac Sand boom in Wisconsin and Minnesota. This is one of three songs he wrote while completing that thesis, and has previously been published in The Driftless Reader, an anthology of writing about the Driftless Region.

Sand Hills

from In The Ruins They've Left Us, We'll Plant Gardens Still by Wooden Shoe Ramblers

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about

Emmett’s college thesis was about the Frac Sand boom in Wisconsin and Minnesota. This is one of three songs he wrote while completing that thesis, and has previously been published in The Driftless Reader, an anthology of writing about the Driftless Region.

lyrics

 I am nothing but a man, made my life upon the land 
west Wisconsin is my home 
In a town of farms and mills, high up in the Driftless Hills 
 Where as I boy I’d roam 
 Those sand bluffs would remain, until the company came 
To strip the hillside bare 
 Digging up the sand to frac someone else’s land 
 In some other town somewhere  

Chorus:
 and I know it's for the best, I should count myself blessed 
that's what the companies say 
but I'll turn my eyes, hang my head and cry 
 'cause they’re haulin’ the sand hills away  

Well, I know that times are tough, this economy is rough 
and we’ve all seen better days
 and when they’re mining out the hills, there’ll be jobs to be filled 
at twenty dollar an hour’s pay 
but the mine don’t seem to care if our kids can breathe the air 
or the water’s there for all
 and when the boom is through, those jobs will be gone, too 
and leave the country raw  

chorus  

Is this the best way, as some people say
 to power our country ?
because it seems a damned high cost,
when there’s so much to be lost 
and the wind and the sunshine’s free 
the more I think, the more I find
that it’s burning in my mind 
that it’s a damned and shameful sin
 to put creation up for bids, and leave nothing for our kids
 but ghosts of sand hills in the wind  

chorus

credits

from In The Ruins They've Left Us, We'll Plant Gardens Still, released December 23, 2020
Vocals, Guitar, Songwriting: Emmett Doyle
Accordion: Sam Adams
Bass: R Young

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Wooden Shoe Ramblers Minneapolis, Minnesota

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